Scores of arrests at road stops

Sobriety checkpoint net hauls in St. Patrick's Day revelers

Posted: Thursday, March 19, 2009

By Joe Johnson

Even a Georgia home game doesn't pack the Clarke County Jail like Wednesday morning's St. Patrick's Day revelry, which ended for dozens of people when they pulled up to sobriety checkpoints authorities set up around downtown Athens.

As of late Wednesday afternoon, jailers had booked 65 people arrested by Georgia State Patrol troopers alone, according to the jail's Web site.

Of those arrests, 45 were on DUI charges, but troopers manning sobriety checkpoints pinched motorists on other charges, from unlicensed driving to cocaine possession.

Athens-Clarke and University of Georgia police officers charged 11 other people with DUI at other checkpoints.

On a busy weekend night - especially when fans flock to Athens to see the Bulldogs play at home - police typically make about a dozen DUI arrests, according to Athens-Clarke Magistrate Court Judge Charles Auslander.

A magistrate court judge held bond hearings Wednesday morning, but had to cancel a second round of hearings because so many people hadn't yet finished the booking process.

"I've never seen this many in Clarke County," Auslander said Wednesday afternoon. "They are still running criminal histories at the jail and catching up on paperwork for us to do bond hearings."

Only 24 of the people arrested by the patrol had made bond by late Wednesday afternoon.

Jail officials knew in advance about the St. Patrick's Day roadblocks and assigned an extra deputy to prisoner intake, but the Lexington Road lock-up still got overwhelmed.

"Efforts were made to accurately predict the effects of these road checks, however, more violators than predicted were brought to the jail," Clarke County sheriff's spokesman Capt. Eric Pozen said.

"Jail staff worked hard all night to process these people into the jail," he said.

Booze and late night merrymakers kept police busy throughout the county.

Troopers manned a one sobriety checkpoint near the Lexington Road entrance to the Athens Perimeter, UGA officers set up checkpoints on East Campus Road and South Lumpkin Street, and Athens-Clarke police stopped motorists on Commerce Road near the Athens Perimeter and on Hawthorne Avenue.

Officers from the three agencies charged 13 people with offenses like underage possession of alcohol, possession of open container and public intoxication.

Though a police report did not mention if alcohol was involved, a UGA student was arrested after he banged on the window of a North Lumpkin Street pizzeria, trying to get in at 2 a.m., and took a swing at an employee who told him the business was closed. The student, who was wearing a tall green and orange hat, was charged with disorderly conduct, Athens-Clarke police said.

Another intoxicated UGA student told police he was robbed of $72 by two men about 4:30 a.m. Wednesday while he counted money he had just withdrawn from an ATM at the corner of East Broad and North Thomas streets.